THE LEWIS CARROLL SOCIETY
i&Msht Letter
OF NORTH AMERICA
NUMBER 47 SUMMER 1 994
Society Mourns Founder
Stan Marx, founder and former president of the LCSN A
and former editor of Knight Letter, died suddenly on July
13. His loss will be felt by the entire Society and the many
others whose lives he touched. Stan was the series editor
of the Lewis Carroll Pamphlets, a project which he urged
along from its embryonic stages to its current fruition. He
was founder and president of the Lewis Carroll Founda-
tion, an organization begun to raise money for Lewis
Carroll projects, which has contributed greatly to the
Lewis Carroll Birthplace Trust.
I first met Stan Marx and his family in 1985 when I had
the great good fortune to purchase the Lewis Carroll
collection which he had built over the previous 25 years.
The collection itself was a monument to Stan, his passion
for collecting, his ingenuity, and his gentle persistence. He
left no stone unturned in his search for Carroll, but his style
was kind, not competitive. He shared his finds with other
collectors, so that he not only built a most impressive
collection of Ca;rolliana, but he helped his many collector
friends to build their own libraries.
Since his collection was incorporated into my own,
Stan became father, grandfather, teacher, and mentor —
rolls he played for so many who knew him. Nor was his
relationship with those he met through the world of Carroll
limited to Alice. I recall lovely din-
ners with Stan and his wife Diana on
Long Island, gifts he brought to my
daughter Lucy, and even the time
Stan chauffeured a carload of
Carrollians through the worst traffic
jam in the history of New York. All
this Stan accomplished with the clas-
sic wit which is well known to all his
friends — or anyone who has ever lis-
tened to his answering machine mes-
sages. If ever there was a kinder,
gentler man, that man was Stan Marx.
Stan was a consummate story
teller. How many of us have heard
him relate the tale of how Katherine
Hepburn showed him "really good
gabardine," or how he came to ac-
quire Irving Berlin's rhyming dictio-
nary, or the many tales of the eminent
Carrollians he counted among his friends — Warren Weaver,
Lall Montgomery, Arthur Houghton, and so many others?
He was a man of passions, but his passions were not
idle or passing. He loved books and collected them all his
life, but he also helped others collect, and ran an antiquar-
ian bookshop in partnership with his son. Stan was one of
the few people who would lend you a book and, instead of
feeling obligated to read it for his sake, you would discover
that he had introduced you to a wonderful new world. He
loved Lewis Carroll, and that passion led him to found the
LCSNA and the LC Foundation, and to contribute to those
organizations in countless ways. He loved New York City,
and a drive through Manhattan with Stan always turned
into a history lesson. Most of all, Stan loved those people
who shared his passions — his family, friends, and anyone
who ever read a book or admired Alice .
Just a month ago I had lunch with Stan and Diana on the
day the International Conference opened — a wonderful
hour of peace for us before the non-stop excitement of the
next few days. We spoke of many things, some Carrollian,
some not, but mostly we relaxed and enjoyed one another' s
company as we have come to do over the years. The con-
ference brought meetings with Stan to plan the future of the
pamphlet series — meetings stolen on a quick walk to
dinner or in front of the fireplace in
the early morning. We made plans
that Stan was eager to go home and
implement. In fact, days after the
conference he wrote me and had
already begun working on those
plans. At the conference he had
shown excitement over the possibil-
ity of a meeting in Japan. "I'm
looking forward to Tokyo in 1996,"
he wrote to me.
I said good-bye to Stan on that
final Sunday of the conference, never
suspecting it would be our final fare-
well. It is hard to accept that some-
one so vital is gone. I know that all
who knew him will agree that this
world is a good deal richer for Stan
Marx having been here, and poorer
today for his departure.
Editorial —
Excuses, excuses . . .
The Knight Letter, as most of you
are probably aware, claims to be "the
quarterly newsletter of the Lewis
Carroll Society of North America,"
and at times during my editorship of
this fine publication it has actually ap-
peared four times per year. While the
publication schedule in recent months
might have been a bit more sporadic, I
do believe that we have managed to
produce more newsletters in the past
four years than during any other simi-
lar period in the Society's history. The
newsletter has expanded from four
pages to six pages during that time,
and, when we let too many months
slide by between issues, we have ex-
panded it to eight pages. So you see,
we do care about you.
"Ah," I hear you cry from the cor-
ners of the globe (I have exceptionally
good hearing), "If you are so concerned
for our welfare, why not keep those
Knight Letters coming every three
months — like my stock dividends."
Sloth would be any easy answer to this
question, but not a completely honest
(nor completely dishonest) one. In
reality, the past four years, and in par-
ticular the past six months, have taught
me that, while I have little trouble be-
lieving six impossible things before
breakfast, I often fail when it comes to
doing six impossible things, even if I
have all day.
In the past several years, the LCSNA
has taken on increasingly large
projects — projects which demand
substantial commitments of time from
those members responsible for their
planning and execution. From the pub-
lication of the Complete Pamphlets of
Lewis Carroll to the sponsorship of the
Second International Lewis Carroll
Conference we have striven to increase
our prestige as well as to contribute
significantly to Carroll studies. With
the Knight Letter growing by leaps and
bounds at the same time, it has become
clear that, when a new administration
is elected in the fall, a further division
of labor must be undertaken and the
tradition of LCSNA president as Knight
Letter editor must be broken.
Happily, we are a Society rich in
human resources. I know this from the
first hand experience of the latest project
to lure me away from publishing Knight
Letters — the planning of the Interna-
tional Conference. I have on my desk
a pile of letters praising the quality and
organization of the conference, all writ-
ten by people under the delusion that I
was responsible for the success of that
gathering. In fact, though I spent
enough time working on conference
planning to deprive loyal readers of the
KL of their rights, the success of the
conference was the result of a team of
planners, workers, and organizers, all
of whom worked tirelessly and without
compensation for the past two years.
At a meeting last spring, six com-
mittee members each volunteered to
take responsibility for a different as-
pect of the conference. It would be
impossible for me to lavish too much
praise and thanks on them — especially
since they all made me look so good —
but I will thank them once again for all
their hard work: Joel Birenbaum, Ellie
Luchinsky, David Schaefer, Maxine
Schaefer, Stephanie Stoffel, and Alan
Tannenbaum — I thank you and every
reader of this newsletter thanks you.
Without all your hard work I would
probably never have had time to do
another KL as long as I lived.
One more individual deserves
thanks, too. At the meeting of the
executive board in June when I ex-
pressed my opinion that one person
should not have to hold the post of
president and edit the Knight Letter
too, Mark Burstein was suggested as a
possible successor editor. Mark, whose
wit and superb writing style are known
to all who have heard his talks to the
Society, graciously agreed to take over
the editorship after the fall election. I
know he will bring a style to this pub-
lication that you will all appreciate.
Now let's see, how many more
Knight Letters before November . . .
Obituaries
Puppeteer and filmmaker Lou
Bunin died in February in
Englewood, New Jersey from a
stroke at age 89. Bunin' s 1951 film
version of Alice in Wonderland was
considered an early special effects
classic. The film began with a live
action sequence in which parallels
were drawn between Oxford fig-
ures (and even Queen Victoria her-
self) and characters in Alice's
dream. The wonderland sequences
were filmed with a live action Alice
in a world populated by stop action
puppets. Bunin made hundreds of
articulated figures for the film, most
of which still survive in private
collections. The film was released
in 1 95 1 , simultaneous with the Walt
Disney Studios' s own animated
version of Alice. Largely through
the efforts of Disney to suppress
Bunin' s movie, it never enjoyed
large screen success, though the
video revolution has brought it a
new life, and it is currently widely
available on VHS videotape. Bunin
spoke to the LCSNA at a meeting
in New York City in 1985, and he
was fondly remembered by Alice
film expert David Schaefer and
others at the recent International
Conference.
Playwright and screenwriter Den-
nis Potter died on June 7 of cancer
of the pancreas. Potter's contro-
versial film Dreamchild was a fic-
tional retelling of the story of Alice
Hargreaves' trip to New York in
1932. The film includes flashbacks
to Alice's childhood (with Lewis
Carroll played by a stammering
Ian Holm) and nightmarish scenes
of Wonderland featuring ghoulish
creatures created by Jim Henson.
Potter was best known for his tele-
vision plays Pennies from Heaven
and The Singing Detective.
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Turner is no Classic
Everyman's Library, which recently reissued Alice in Won-
derland as part of their new Children's Classics series, now
offers a cassette recording as a companion to the book. The tape
is packaged in a box which reproduces the cover of the book,
adding the ominous words "as told by Kathleen Turner." A
careful examination of the rear of the box revels two other
disturbing facts: the text was abridged by Elizabeth Crawford
and the total playing time is one hour. I suppose it may be
possible to abridge A lice and reduce the time of the story to one
hour without losing Carroll's humor, but that certainly has not
been done here. As I listened to this tape, each time I prepared
myself for a favorite joke or pun, it had vanished away like the
Cheshire Cat. While poor editing is my primary criticism of
this tape, I cannot let the choice of Ms. Turner as narrator pass
unnoticed. While her breathy voice may be perfect for film
noire or the sound of Jessica Rabbit, it seems to this reviewer
totally inappropriate for the narration of children's books. The
few places where Turner tries to breath some life into her
storytelling fall flat, surrounded as they are by her Hollywood
huskiness. The bits and pieces of classical music which fade in
and out of the background generally serve to distract rather than
to enhance the tale — a tale I would have preferred if it had been
"as told by Lewis Carroll."
Great Books Program
Features Familiar Faces
The Learning Channel recently broadcast the latest install-
ment in its series titled Great Books — a one hour program
focusing on Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-
Glass. Numerous members of the LCSNA and the Lewis
Carroll Society, London, were featured in the program, includ-
ing Morton Cohen, Selwyn Goodacre, Charlie Lovett, Donald
Rackin, David Schaefer, Maxine Schaefer, Elizabeth Sewell,
and Edward Wakeling. The producers of the film interviewed
all these Carrollians on camera and excerpts from these inter-
views are used liberally throughout the program.
Unfortunately, the other "expert" interviewed for this pro-
duction was rock singer Grace Slick, whose song "White
Rabbit," which uses images from the Alice books, was a hit
during the 1960s. Ms. Slick is quick to show her ignorance of
the texts of the Alice books, referring to the appearance of
platypuses, mispronouncing "slithy" and providing her own
definitions of the words in "Jabberwocky," ignoring the fact
that Carroll had defined them in the character of Humpty
Dumpty. Despite the fact that her qualifications are as a
musician and not as a Carroll expert, Ms. Slick is featured more
prominently in the film than any of
the other people interviewed.
The program takes a generally
dark view of the Alice books, harp-
ing on the theme of nightmares and
on what some critics might see as the more sordid interpreta-
tions — sex and drugs (adding Ms. Slick for Rock and Roll).
Nightmarish and surrealistic interpretations of Alice such as
Jonathan Miller's controversial A lice film, Tom Petty 's bizarre
mad hatter music video "Don't Come Around Here No More,"
Salvador Dali's illustrations, and, Grace Slick's drug-inspired
song, are shown in support of this view of the books.
The program does offer some interesting insights into how
various scholars view the texts. Morton Cohen calls Alice "an
allegory of the journey of life ... or the journey of a child's
growing up, and [Carroll's] saying to that child, 'stick with it,
you'll come through all right'." Donald Rackin calls the book
a "celebration of the issue of identity" which answers the
question "Who are you?" with "we are what we make our-
selves."
The program, narrated by Donald Sutherland, uses lush
slow motion photography of little girls in Oxford to add to its
dreamlike nature. Poorly animated and gaudily colored Tenniel
drawings detract somewhat from this rich texture. In addition
to delving into the nature of the text, the program examines
Dodgson himself, taking into account his relationships with
Alice and other young girls and his hobby of photography.
The phenomenon of Alice in the popular culture is dis-
cussed, especially from the viewpoint of several of the collec-
tors interviewed in the film. David and Maxine Schaefer's
superb Carroll collection makes an excellent backdrop for
interviews with them and Charlie Lovett, and Dave provides
explanatory voiceovers for clips from three early silent films of
Alice from his collection.
Another set of recurring characters are a group of puppets —
large and colorful, but unfortunately not well versed in Carroll.
Their reproduction of the Mad Tea Party eliminates Carroll's
jokes in favor of a new, and much less humorous, pun.
All these elements — the interviews, the animation, the
Oxford photography, the puppet scenes, and Donald
Sutherland's voice — are woven together in a manner which can
only be described as dreamlike, though a harsher critic might be
tempted to use the term disorganized. The result is a program
which teaches some (though not nearly as much as one might
expect in the one hour time frame) basic information about the
Alice books, their popularity, critical appraisal, the author, and
the times in which they were created. More than that, though,
the film, through its sometimes illogical mingling of these
elements, with the repetition of background music that moves
from dreamlike to nightmarish, provides a multimedia version
of one interpretation of the book — that Alice is the stuff of
dreams and haunted nightmares.
International Conference Report
The consensus among all who attended the Second
International Lewis Carroll Conference in Winston-Salem
on June 9-12 was that the gathering was a tremendous
success and a feather in the cap of its sponsoring organiza-
tion, the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Nearly
fifty people gathered at the Graylyn Conference Center for
the event which followed five years after the first
International Lewis Carroll Conference in Oxford.
Following Thursday's dinner and opening re-
marks by the conference coordinator, Charlie
Lovett, the proceedings were opened with a talk
by leading Carroll scholar Morton N. Cohen. In
his talk, "Reeling and Writhing with Lewis
Carroll," Professor Cohen offered us a sneak
preview of his biography of Lewis Carroll, which
will be published next spring. He paid special
attention to the way in which Carroll's often
neglected serious poetry reflected his person-
ality and his feelings about relationships.
Quite a stir was caused among the doc
tors in the house when Professor
Cohen suggested a possible com
plica ting factor in the illness that
lead to Carroll's death. Every-
one present voiced their eager
anticipation of the biography.
The evening's entertain-
ment commenced with a
showing of the Alice in Won-
derland episode of the Learn-
ing Channel's Great Books se-
ries, reviewed on page three of
this KL. Then followed a slide
talk by Damon Butler, a young
man who travelled 1529 miles by bi
cycle touring spots in England associated
with Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell.
Damon's display of photographs, grave rubbings,
and other relics of his trip brought Carroll's England to life.
Friday morning began with another slide talk, this time
by children's book author Christina Bjork. Ms. Bjork had
attended the 1989 conference in Oxford, and while there
was inspired to write a children's book about Lewis Carroll
and Alice. Her lecture gave us a behind the scenes look at
the creation of the book, The Other Alice, which was pub-
lished recently and reviewed in KL #46.
Edward Wakeling delivered a fascinating lecture on
Alice Hargreaves' 1932 trip to the United States — appropri-
ate for this American gathering. Quoting extensively from
the diaries of both Mrs. Hargreaves and her son, Caryl, who
accompanied her on the trip, Mr. Wakeling drew a some-
times less than flattering portrait of the aging woman and
her opportunistic son.
Julie Grossman, a professor at Wake Forest University,
next delivered a paper which delved into the issue of Carroll
projecting his own feelings of vulnerability onto young girls,
especially in the context of his photography. Henry James's
novel Watch and Ward was discussed as an analogue to
Carroll's dilemma of negotiating between his wish to oc-
cupy and master the Wordsworthian position of the
female child-friend.
Stephen Haedicke, a student of Professor
Grossman, presented a paper titled "The Tea Party
Which Hit Light Speed: Order, Relativity, and
Chaos in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and
Through the Looking-Glass" which looked at
Carroll's works through the looking-glass of
Einsteinian theory and chaos mathematics to re-
veal a different kind of order in the texts.
During Lunch, and during all our breaks be-
tween speakers, the collectors' trading area
was open for business. Collectors and deal-
ers had brought Alice merchandise and
books from all over the world and Joel
Birenbaum served as host to this
always popular area.
Our afternoon session began
with a talk by Dr. Selwyn
Goodacre on the bibliography
of nineteenth-century Ameri-
can Alice books. The highlight
of this stimulating talk was Dr.
Goodacre's definitive descrip-
tion of the various piracies of
Alice perpetrated by Jesse Haney,
including his discussion of some
which had never been described.
There followed one of the most
controversial yet fascinating talks of the
conference — a superb look at the underlying
sexuality in the A//^books by Professor Donald Rackin.
Professor Rackin avoided the simplistic Freudian approach
to literary criticism and presented a case for sexuality in Alice
based on a much more subtle analysis of images and charac-
ters.
Since 1994 marks the 20th anniversary of the LCSNA,
Society founder and first president Mr. Stan Marx and 20-
year veteran secretary Mrs. Maxine Schaefer next offered us
some reminiscences about those twenty years. Mrs.
Schaefer's description of the Society's visit to Arthur
Houghton's estate elicited fond memories from those who
had attended and jealousy from those who had not.
Friday's dinner was hosted by Stephanie and Judge
Stoffel and Lucy Lovett at their nearby home. As delegates
enjoyed a delicious meal they had a chance to explore the
treasures of the Lovett/Stoffel collection, much of which
had recently returned from a tour of Japan.
The evening's entertainment was hosted by Alice film
expert Professor David Schaefer, who first presented a
tribute to Lou Bunin (see obituary on page 2). Prof. Schaefer
also shared a recently discovered Popeye cartoon featuring
Wonderland characters and then treated the crowd to what
he called, "the worst A lice movie ever made," the 1931 first
talking movie of Alice. Despite the limitations placed on the
film makers by the new sound technology, the movie fasci-
nated those who watched. Seeing silent movie acting used
in a sound film gave us a new view of Alice and a new
understanding of Singin' in the Rain\
Saturday morning began with a talk by Professor Francine
Abeles on algorithms in Carroll's work. Professor Abeles
examined some of Carroll's ciphers and puzzles and did an
expert job of clearly explaining them to delegates who were
not primarily mathematicians. Following this talk, Prof.
Abeles joined a panel discussion on Carroll and computers.
Joel Birenbaum, Edward
Wakeling, and David
Schaefer comprised the rest
of the panel, which dis-
cussed various issues relat-
ing to Carroll and comput-
ers, paying particular atten-
tion to Carroll's letter regis-
ter — an early, but nonethe-
less complex, form of rela-
tional database.
Elizabeth Sewell de-
scribed how Carroll helped
her learn how to think —
something that Cambridge
had been both unwillingand
unable to do. She then chal-
The afternoon session continued with a talk by Profes-
sor Anashia Plackis on how the philosophy of whole lan-
guage education is present in Carroll's works. Lewis Carroll's
decision to put the learner at the center of the intellectual
process of discovery ranks him with the most progressive
educational reformers whose concern is to teach children
how to think, as opposed to telling them what to think. They
are thus empowered to draw their own lessons and morals
and not have them dictated by authority.
Professor Jan Susina delivered a talk on Lewis Carroll's
feelings about his imitators, and particular about the one
imitation of Alice he criticized publicly, Tom Hood's From
Nowhere to the North Pole. Edward Salmon's comments on
these two books in "Little for the Little Ones," troubled
Carroll and a somewhat darker side of his personality was
revealed in Professor Susina's analysis of his reactions.
Following dinner, the delegates adjourned to the third
Lewis Carroll Society of North America Auction. The auc-
tion, held to raise funds to
assist with the Society's pub-
What has emerged in the past four days has
been a picture of a Lewis Carroll both more
human and more complex than we have
known before. . . . What does it matter if
Lewis Carroll and his work are not the
immaculate conceptions of our childhood
vision if they can be all the more important
for the legitimate spot they occupy in a
world not only of children's books but also
of human emotion.
— Charlie Lovett, Closing Remarks
lenged others to tell how they came to have such a strong
interest in Carroll that they would spend four days emersed
in his study and several delegates shared their own stories.
Professor Donna White used some of Elizabeth Sewell's
writings as a beginning point for her paper titled "The
Game Plan of The Hunting of the Snark" in which she
analyzed the Snark as a game, delineated the rules for us,
and then gave us a play by play of the contest.
Followinglunch, Frankie Morris spoke on John Tenniel's
cartoons commenting on the American Civil War. In sev-
enty cartoons Tenniel showed how some Britons viewed
the issues, Lincoln's presidency, and England's own role.
With a cast of stereotypes common to cartoons, literature
(not excluding Carroll), and the stage, Tenniel's pageant of
the Civil War melded drama, minstrel show, yankee theatre,
and spectacle to present a Victorian Mythology.
Yoshiyuki Momma spoke on the popularity of Alice in
Japan, citing several examples of her continuing and grow-
ing appeal in that country. Encouraged by the assembled
delegates, Yoshi and the other three delegates from Japan
met on Sunday morning and founded the Lewis Carroll
Society of Japan. Rumor has it that the next International
Conference may be in Tokyo.
lications projects, was a
grand success, with prices
on the sixty lots totalling over
$4000.
Despite the late hour,
many of the delegates mi-
grated to the Gothic Grille
Room in Graylyn's base-
ment, where the bizarre
wrought iron sailing ship in
the grillwork provided a su-
perb backdrop for a dramatic
reading of The Hunting of the
Snark. Jonathan Dixon, who
illustrated the book in 1992,
served as host for this event and recruited a motley crew to
assist him in hunting the Snark (it turned out to be a
Boojum!).
Sunday morning brought long faces as delegates per-
ceived that the end of their stay in Wonderland was near. A
superb talk by Anne Clark Amor, however, served to wake
us up and cheer us as well. Mrs. Amor spoke on Carroll's
Russian journey, quoting from his diary and Henry Liddon's
diary of the event as well to paint a picture of Carroll as one
who, like most Englishmen of the day, looked upon foreign-
ers with amusement and some disdain.
The conference ended with a closing forum to which
delegates were invited to submit questions. Much was said
about the future of Carroll studies and ideas for interesting
young people in Carroll were explored. Inevitably, the
coordinator had to terminate the discussion, deliver his
closing remarks, and then, as we all had dreaded, declare
that this wonderful gathering was officially ended. Del-
egates began the process of returning to New York, Califor-
nia, England, Sweden, Japan, and elsewhere as if emerging
from a dream as wonderful and enlightening as Alice's.
The full proceedings of the conference will be pub-
lished and made available to all members for a modest price.
Pamphlets Reassess Carroll as Mathematician
The Mathematical Pamphlets of Charles L. Dodgson
and Related Pieces, the second volume in the
Society's ongoing series, The Complete Pamphlets of
Lewis Carroll, is due to be published this summer.
Ordering information for this volume appears be-
low.
The book, edited by mathematics professor
and LCSNA treasurer Dr. Francine Abeles, may
well be the most significant of the projected six
volumes in the series. Dr. Abeles, a professor at
Kean College in Union, NJ, has provided, for the
first time, a careful analysis not only of Carroll's
mathematical pamphlets, but also of his career as
a mathematician, a frequently overlooked facet of
Carroll's character. Though of great interest to the
mathematician, the book is written in such a way
as to be accessible to all readers with an interest in
Carroll and his works.
In her introduction Dr. Abeles writes, "The
reader of this volume will find Dodgson's pam-
phlets and other relevant items organized by math-
ematical subject. Since an evaluation of Dodgson
as a mathematician is not possible from these
pamphlets alone, each subject begins with a gen-
eral introduction to Dodgson's writings on the
topic. . . This approach permits a reassessment of
Dodgson's contributions to mathematics."
Like the previous book in the series, Edward
Wakeling's, The Oxford Pamphlets, Leaflets, and
Circulars of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, this volume
reprints the complete text of all Dodgson's extant
pamphlets in the field. While the book was in
process, several pamphlets, hitherto thought not
to have survived, were discovered, and these, too,
are included in full. Dr. Abeles has provided, in
fact, two books in one — a reprinting of Dodgson's
mathematical pamphlets, and an assessment of
Dodgson as mathematician.
At last fall's meeting of the LCSNA in Boston,
Dr. Abeles spoke about editing the pamphlets,
focusing on a number of significant contributions
which Dodgson made to the field of mathematics
in support of the question she had raised at the
outset of the talk, "Would there be any interest in
his mathematical work at all if he weren't the
author of the Alice books?"
To support her belief that the answer to this
question is definitely "yes," Dr. Abeles described
three of these contributions: Dodgson's remark-
able alternative to Euclid's parallel axiom, an intu-
itively appealing method to obtain an accurate
approximation for pi, and a comparatively simple
algorithm to calculate a determinant. As in her
book, Dr. Abeles was able to present these in such
a manner as to be fully comprehensible to the non-
mathematically inclined.
Refuting the prevailing opinion that Dodgson
was unaware of the non-Euclidean geometries
being developed in his time, she provided evi-
dence from Dodgson's own work that he knew all
about these revolutionary theories.
Dr. Abeles discussed several aspects of
Dodgson's personality as well as some important
events in the Victorian age that influenced
Dodgson's views and the mathematical topics about
which he chose to write.
Dr. Abeles also spoke on a mathematics-re-
lated topic at the recent International Conference
(see article pages 4—5). The publication of her
book marks a major event in Carroll scholarship.
We know that all KL readers will eagerly order a
copy of this landmark publication.
To order copies of The Mathematical Pamphlets of Charles L. Dodgson and Related Pieces, please send $52,
plus $3 shipping and handing to the below address. List price for the book is $65. LCSNA members receive a
20% discount. Supplies are limited, so please order as quickly as possible. Make checks payable to LCSNA.
Name and Address:
Amount Enclosed ($55 per volume).
Return to: Charlie Lovett, 10714 West 128th Court, Overland Park, Kansas, 66213
Carrollian
Notes
News of Our
Members
We have had much news of the
Carrollian activities of our members
lately. It is gratifying to see so many of
you spreading the news about Carroll
and his works. Keep it up!
Stephanie Stoffel was featured in
an article in the June 1 1 Charlotte
Observer about the International Con-
ference. When asked how members of
the LCSNA feel about Alice in Won-
derland Stephanie quoted Alice, say-
ing "It fills my head with ideas, only I
don't know what they are."
Elizabeth Erikson wrote to the
Phoenix Gazette to correct columnist
Sam Lowe's assertion that Lewis
Carroll named the Boojum Tree. Mr.
Lowe acknowledged her correction in
print, however he stated the Boojum
Tree, not merely the Boojum, appeared
in The Hunting of the Snark.
Robert Mitchell presented a paper
on Lewis Carroll's Game of Logic at
the 1994 International Conference of
the British Society for the History of
Mathematics in Winchester in March.
Thomas Bruenn was pictured in the
February 7 Record- Journal of Meriden,
CT, holding a pop-up edition of Alice.
As chairman of the Piatt High School
math department, Bruenn was involved
in the school's "Lewis Carroll Week"
celebration, an event designed as a tool
to teach students about math and his-
tory.
Joel Birenbaum's discovery of the
Cheshire Cat (see KL #42) was re-
ported in the April, 1994 edition of
Reader's Digest.
Also on the topic of "correcting the
editor," Annelies De Wever, a Flemish
reader of KL, wrote to strongly object
to my grouping that language
with "those which didn't
make the grade" in my ar-
ticle on translations of Alice.
Continued consultation with
. a variety linguistic experts
reveals a consensus of opin-
ion that Dutch and Flemish are identi-
cal. Therefore the entry in the primary
list which read "Dutch" should read
"Dutch/Flemish." My apologies to any
and all Flemish readers.
Our Electronic
Address Book
In the last KL I sent out a plea for e-mail
addresses of our members. For the past
several months members have been
sending me a vast variety of electronic
mail, usually including their own
Internet addresses for inclusion in a
directory of on-line Carrollians. I hope
that soon we will be able to include e-
mail addresses in our standard mem-
bership list, but for now I offer the
following addresses which I have re-
ceived from members.
JOEL BIRENBAUM:
jmb7@ihlpm.att.com
MARK BURSTEIN:
SN=Burstein%G=Maik%BECHIEL@mcimaiIcom
C. W. CARROLL:
carrollc@ccmail.orst.edu
GEORGE CASSADY:
GCASSADY@delphi.com
DON CHILDERS:
childers@drwho.ee.ufl.edu
SANDY CORDERO:AliceBlue@aol.com
GARY CROUNSE:
garyjcrc«nse.oentraWu#maU@qmexplccatorium.edu
BARBARA FELICETTI:
BFELICETTI@DELPHI.COM
MARCUS HATCH:
Marcus_Hatch@liris.loral.com
HANS HAVERMANN:
Hans_Havermann@CMAC.eastern.com
ROSS HEATH: gilblas@aol.com
MAT HOSTETTER:
mat@cag.lcs.mit.edu
CHARLIE LOVETT: Charliel03@aol.com
ELLIE LUCHINSKY:
eluchin@epfll.epflbalto.org
DAVID NEAL: david.n.neal@att.com
SANDY PASQUA: sarmadillo@aol.com
MAXINE SCHAEFER:
max42@helix.nih.gov
DAVID SCHAEFER: schaefer@gmu.edu
STUART SHIEBER:
shieber@das.harvard.edu
KURT STAVEN: STAVEN@FTP.COM
ALAN TANNENBAUM:
TB AUM @ vnet.ibm.com
DIANNE WAGGONER:
waggon@minerva.cis.yale.edu
GERMAINE WEAVER:
gweaverl @eagle.lhup.edu
Please send any corrections to this list
along with additional e-mail addresses
to Charliel03@aol.com, or to the edi-
tor via snail mail at the address on the
back page.
on the translations of Alice U11JL1 ^^ ^ J ^
in KL #46, 1 have received a "^" M ~ ^^^^^^^^^™
flurry of correspondence from several members eager to see a
definitive list of languages into which Alice in Wonderland has
been translated. While research continues (and I do hope one day
to publish such a list in these pages), I thought an update might be
of interest. Jon Lindseth reports that the following languages may
be added to the primary list, as he possesses either published copies
or photocopies of published editions: Gujarti, Sasak (an Indonesian
language incorrectly referred to in my article as Lombok), Xhosa,
and Tongan. Some collectors have speculated that some of the
items in the Australian Alice 125 catalogue never existed. Jim
Coombs, however, at the recent International Conference, reported that at the
1990 exhibition for which this catalogue was printed, something was dis-
played for each entry in the catalogue. While Jim could not confirm that in
every case what was displayed matched the catalogue description, perhaps
many of these manuscript fragments do exist.
rrotn Dat° rar-panfi
Abbot Geer write to tell us that the Spring
House Tour of Historic Properties in
East Haddam, CT, included the Emmett
House, built in 1696 and including an
"Alice in Wonderland" room. The room
includes wall and ceiling murals of scenes
from Alice painted by W. Langdon Kihn
for his daughter, Phyllis, in 1934. Kihn
was a renowned painter whose work ap-
peared in the National Geographic. The
room is illustrated in full color in the
September 1938 issue of National Geo-
graphic. Phyllis Kihn served as a docent
on tour day to answer questions about her
father's work.
The 1991 edition of the Romanian jour-
nal Secolul 20 (number 352-354) is de-
voted to Lewis Carroll. The editorial
address of the journal is: Stefan Aug.
Doinas, Editor, Secolul 20, Culea
Victoriei 133, Bucuresti, Romania.
Hammer Galleries (33 West 57th St.,
NY, NY, 10019) mounted an exhibit of
recent sculpture by Harry Marinsky,
much of which was devoted to Alice in
Wonderland sculptures. The bronze Alice
sculptures are heavily influenced by
Tenniel and vary in size (like Alice) from
a 14-inch Walrus and Carpenter to a life
size Mad Tea Party. Prices range from
$8000 to $185,000.
The Museum of Jewelry, 3000 Larkin
Street, San Francisco, CA, 94109 offers
Lewis Carroll garnet earrings, Ellen Terry
earrings, and a bizarre ceramic Cheshire
Cat Box, though we are unable to ascer-
tain the connections among these ob-
jects. Call 1-800-835-2700.
&
owegi
?t?0ft
denfe
Dover "Thrift Editions" have just re-
leased an unabridged paperback of Alice
with Tenniel illustrations for $1.00.
(ISBN 0-486-27543-4).
Art in America recently ran an article on
the Gaberbocchus Press, a small press in
London founded in 1948 which took its
name from the title of a Latin translation
of "Jabberwocky."
Speaking of small presses — The News-
letter of The Book Club of California for
Spring 1994 reviewed The White Knight
Press, based in Honolulu, HI.
An e-mail user grabbed a piece by Eliza-
beth Hill off the office underground which
cites a study showing that British chil-
dren are more familiar with computer
game characters such as the Super Mario
Brothers (97% recognition) or Sonic the
Hedgehog (93%) than with classic fig-
ures from literature like Alice in Won-
derland (91%). The survey was carried
out to mark the release often new stamps
featuring literary characters. Curious.
Harper 's Magazine for April 1 994 printed
three letters from Lewis Carroll to An-
thony Mayhew about photographing the
Mayhew children under the title "Alice
in Underwearland." Curiouser.
Carl Rohde reports seeing a full color
Alice in Wonderland window display in
Hamilton, Bermuda, advertising a sale —
in a liquor store. Curiouser and curiouser !
Peggy and Robert Noel have placed an
"Alice in Wonderland Tree" on loan to
the Monterey Museum of Art at La
Mirada, CA, which is planning a special
Alice event in the fall of 1994. The tree
was the brain child of New York sculptor
Graham Halky who spent fourteen
months researching and making 105
handmade figurines of paper mache, pa-
per collie, acrylic, and 22 karat gold leaf.
The figures hanging on the tree are based
on Tenniel' s illustrations. For more in-
formation on the fall celebration write
Peggy Noel, P.O. Box 1415, Pebble
Beach, CA, 93953.
The Stratford, Ontario. Shakespeare Fes-
tival will present a new adaptation of
Alice Through the Looking-Glass by
James Reaney from July 10 through Oc-
tober 1 6. For more information call (5 1 9)
271-4040.
The 50th Street subway station near
Broadway in New York City was re-
cently the recipient of a face lift which
included the installation of a mosaic titled
"Alice: The Way Out." The ceramic
mosaic designed by Liliana Porter de-
picts Alice peeking through a theater
curtain in keeping with the theme of the
surrounding theatrical district.
The Berkeley Ballet Theatre presented
its Alice in Wonderland in late February
and March in San Francisco and San
Rafael. Part of a performing arts series
for children, the program featured leap
and learn ballet arts with the Mad Hatter,
Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts, White
Rabbit, and of course, Alice.
For assistance in preparing this issue we would like to thank: Earl Abbe, Fran Abeles, Ann Buki, Sandor Burstein, Jim Coombs,
Annelies De Wever, Jonathan Dixon, Tom Doyle, Elizabeth Erikson, Abbot Geer, Johanna Hurwitz, Jon Lindseth, Robert Mitchell,
Peggy and Robert Noel, Lucille Posner, Carl Rohde, Andrew Sellon, David and Maxine Schaefer, and Stephanie Stoffel.
Knight Letter is the official newsletter of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. It is published quarterly and is distributed
free to all members. Subscriptions, business correspondence, and inquiries should be addressed to the Secretary, LCSNA, 617
Rockford Road, Silver Spring, Maryland, 20902. Annual membership dues are $20 (regular) & $50 (sustaining). Submissions and
editorial correspondence should be sent to the Editor, Charles C. Lovett, 10714 W. 128th Ct., Overland Park, KS, 66213 or via e-
mail at Charliel03@aol.com.
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